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March 2012: Bowiea volubilis

The bizarre scrambling climber, Bowiea volubilis or climbing onion plant is actually in the same family as the hyacinth (Asparagaceae). The green bulb is native to the Eastern…

Spring Fever

It feels like we have turned a corner this week, the sun is out and things are most definitely growing in the garden. The beds are prepared and…

Floral scents

Abeliophyllum distichum exuding floral scent from the mass of pink tinged blossom covering the deciduous wood. Worth a walk to the south facing border at the foot of…

Peas, beans and beetroot

As they say you learn on your mistakes… I had a look today (Fri 2 March 2012) on my bean and pea seeds sowed in paper pots. They…

Line of defence

When you take an owenership of a piece of land and start cultivating it you become very protective of it. You start realising all dangers which can creep…

Spring time, busy time

A lot of activity on my plot today. First, I placed down some stepping bricks through the middle of my plot to make every inch of it easy…

Science on a Plate

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh’s Science on a Plate exhibition is currently up and running in the John Hope Gateway. The exhibition focuses on where the food on…

A spring favourite leaping continents

Used as we are to the yellow flowers of the Primrose, there are colour variations of this species which we are lessPrimula vulgaris familiar with. A native to…

Going green in the edible garden

Our workshop at the weekend was all about edible gardening in the greenest way possible. Biodiversity We think that if well managed, wildlife and edible gardening can coexist….

A frosty reception

Observe the frost on Pachystegia insignis (sometimes called Olearia insignis) and see value added to a plant that you may pass by without a second glance at this…

Fruit tree pruning at Leith Links children’s orchard

The Edible Gardening Project team spent an extremely pleasant day on Saturday helping Greener Leith with their children’s orchard on Leith Links. The fruit trees where planted about…

Reminders of romance

Seed pods; bright yellow, tucked into the evergreen canopy of Euonymus wilsonii. Splitting apart into even segments revealing the red coated aril. A spectacular find at this time…

Spring seed sowing

Milder weather at the end of this week enabled me to do some outdoors sowing. Today (10 Feb 2012) I sowed two rows of green peas Pisum sativum…

Girls construction session – episode 3

The anti-mice cage is finally completed! After fixing the lid on Tuesday (7 Feb 2012) Jessie and I placed our seed trays in it. I checked on it…

Meet the Edible Gardening Project Volunteers

We have a wonderful team of dedicated volunteers helping us run the Edible Gardening Project. During the first eight months of the project we have spoken to over…

Shoots leaves and flowers

With the days lengthening and the soil warming; growth, especially in herbaceous plants, is shooting away. Helleborus vesicarius is looking promising with flowers colouring optimistically. Opening green these…

Girls construction session – episode 2

On Friday (3 Feb 2012) Jessie, Sara and I embarked on constructing timber floor for our anti-mice cage. Although we ran into some technical difficulties – surprisingly the…

Funding news and potato deliberations

Our big news this week is that the Edible Gardening Project has received more funding from the People’s Postcode Lottery. They held their annual charity gala event at…

Girls construction session

Carpentry is not as easy as it looks. Especially for 5 untrained horticulture students with little previous construction experience. It is a lot of fun, though. Especially when…

Grey skies, moisture laden leaves

Euphorbia characias ssp. wulfenii ‘John Tomlinson’ is brought to life after rain. The droplets collect on the grey blue waxy cuticle of the leaf and reflect light. Arranged…